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240 Door Speaker Replacement/Upgrade - Stock Appearance

Benjam83

Benjam83

Moar Volvos than Queen B
Joined
May 23, 2003
Location
Peoria Illinois
I tried searching...but I'm guessing this might be a little bit of a corner-case.

'93 240 wagon

Ok, background...I recently replaced both of my front door speakers using BNE's speaker grills. I'm very happy with how much better the stock radio sounds...and I love how close they look to the older factory grills that I had on my old 87 240. I don't really have any intention of replacing the original head unit. My goal is the clean appearance of originality...even if she is a little sassy underneath...

Anyway, my rear speakers are pretty bad, so I've got it faded all the way to the front. I'd like to replace the rear door speakers and tweeters, but would like to maintain the stock appearance. Has anyone tackled it like this? Or does everyone just settle for the speaker grills that come with whatever speakers you buy? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance...
 
I cut some metal in my rear doors to fit a pair of JL Audio XR570 speakers
I have a pair of JL Audio C5-400 speakers installed with the original covers and adapters from Wagon Mesiter in another wagon.
Currently running JL Audio XR525 in the front doors with adapters from VolvoNest and a 1/4" spacer.
 
You're running the Wagon Meister adapters in the rear doors? Or you just made your own adapters to fit speakers to the rear doors?
 
The speker can either fit in or behind the Wagon Meister speaker adapter.
The stock 4" speaker grills then attach to the front of the Wagon Meister adapters.
I've also used a pair of JL Audio C2-400x with this setup, which sounded fine.
 
Your car being a '93 means it has 5.25in speakers on the back doors instead of 4in speakers. As far as I know, nobody has designed an aftermarket bracket for that style of speaker/grill. And I know for a fact that nobody has put an aftermarket tweeter behind that factory tweeter grill. There are 3d printed brackets for the 4in speakers, but not for that style of 5.25in. I asked the geniuses in the 3D printed parts thread to design a bracket for those style speakers/grills, but I've had no response as of yet.
 
I'm tempted to drill out the rivets holding it all on, and sacrifice the original speakers to allow an aftermarket speaker to work...

So, the 5.25" rear door speakers were a 93 only thing?
 
Benjam83 said:
I'm tempted to drill out the rivets holding it all on, and sacrifice the original speakers to allow an aftermarket speaker to work...

So, the 5.25" rear door speakers were a 93 only thing?
Click to expand...
That's likely the easiest option with that style of speaker. It used to be to fit 4" speakers behind the factory grill you would cut the speaker off and basically have your own wagonmeister adapter. So you can do you cut it up to make an adapter or learn how to model stuff to 3d print.
 
I added 5.25 speakers to the rear doors of my 91 245 using the same style Volvo "speaker pods". Just had to trim the door cards a bit to fit the speaker magnets through.
 
just replace the lower speaker with a 2 way and leave the tweeter in the door card disconnected...
or get door cards without the tweeter hole in them
 
philski o'flood said:
just replace the lower speaker with a 2 way and leave the tweeter in the door card disconnected...
or get door cards without the tweeter hole in them
Click to expand...
but...but...but I wanna do both...

mblue240 said:
That's likely the easiest option with that style of speaker. It used to be to fit 4" speakers behind the factory grill you would cut the speaker off and basically have your own wagonmeister adapter. So you can do you cut it up to make an adapter or learn how to model stuff to 3d print.
Click to expand...
This is probably the route I'm going to go. And then when I get the door cards off to do this, I'll take a look at the tweeters and see what options I've got...
 
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leadermoose said:
Your car being a '93 means it has 5.25in speakers on the back doors instead of 4in speakers. As far as I know, nobody has designed an aftermarket bracket for that style of speaker/grill. And I know for a fact that nobody has put an aftermarket tweeter behind that factory tweeter grill. There are 3d printed brackets for the 4in speakers, but not for that style of 5.25in. I asked the geniuses in the 3D printed parts thread to design a bracket for those style speakers/grills, but I've had no response as of yet.
Click to expand...
Someone has made one for a 5.25" speaker which will let you mount a normal speaker. I don't think the grille has been made. I think the bracket was designed to use the stock grille. The speaker mount is deeper to accommodate a regular 5.25" speaker.

If you're not too picky, you can get the stock speaker mount & grille and remove grille like this.
 
white855T said:
Someone has made one for a 5.25" speaker which will let you mount a normal speaker. I don't think the grille has been made. I think the bracket was designed to use the stock grille. The speaker mount is deeper to accommodate a regular 5.25" speaker.

If you're not too picky, you can get the stock speaker mount & grille and remove grille like this.
Click to expand...
The 5.25s that are on the back doors are a different style grill, and the grill mounts directly to the speaker and door card with four rivets.

This is what his back door should look like since it's a '93:
Screenshot 2024-10-03 084353.png
 
leadermoose said:
The 5.25s that are on the back doors are a different style grill, and the grill mounts directly to the speaker and door card with four rivets.

This is what his back door should look like since it's a '93:
View attachment 29278
Click to expand...
Yeah you need to remove it to fit a normal size speaker. The speaker grille is stupid and no one is going to take the time redesign it.

54039338792_6aba6fcd0f_c.jpg
 
white855T said:
Yeah you need to remove it to fit a normal size speaker. The speaker grille is stupid and no one is going to take the time redesign it.
Click to expand...
He said he wanted the original look, so I was giving him the info that I've got. The grill being directly mounted to the speaker without there being any bracket in between, might actually make it easier to put a better speaker behind it.
 
I've got some speakers ordered to match the ones I put in the front doors...They're behind grills, so you cant really see them...but I'll know they're there, and I'll know they match. That's all that matters.

They're supposed to be here tomorrow. If I'm able to get to them this weekend, I'll try to document the process. So, we'll see what happens...
 
necro-bump...

I finally got around to working on this. I fully enjoy how easy it is to remove the rear cards, compared to the front.

Because I felt like there was more uncertainty around it, I wanted to tackle the tweeters first. They pop out of the door card easily enough with the one integrated clip at the bottom.
2.jpg
The tweeter itself was friction-welded to the grill. Some gentle persuasion with at flat-head, being careful not to break the grill or any of the mounting points, and it came free.
1.jpg

The temptation was there to break the mesh out of the grill and just surface-mount the tweeter, but that goes against my desire for a stock appearance. So, it's not a terribly elegant solution, but I've had good luck with the marine epoxy, and the tweeters that I picked look like they'll fit nicely behind the stock tweeter grill.
4.jpg 5.jpg

The main downside about this stuff is how quickly it starts setting up. You better be prepared, because once you mix it, you're on the clock. My main goal was to no obstruct any of the clips, and ensure that I'd still be able to mount it in the door card. While I thought it'd be ok, I still wasn't 100% sure it would fit with the door card on the door. The depth of the stock tweeter is maybe 3/4". This one is 1.5-2". Again, I know it's not the prettiest...but i don't think it's going anywhere, and it should be totally hidden.
8.jpg

From the front, you cant really tell what it's got going on behind...
9.jpg

Once it's all buttoned up, it actually fits...it makes noise...and it looks stock! Next up are the bigger door speakers...
10.jpg
 
Ok, so one of the best lessons learned from this for me, is my technique for applying the marine epoxy. The standard way that I'd always done it is terrible, and the likelihood of making a huge mess is pretty high. Like most people, I'd squirt it all out on a paper plate or something, mix it all with a popsicle stick (or something similar). I'd then spread it with the stick like butter on toast, and try (unsuccessfully) to not make a huge mess.

What I started doing on this project...
  1. Squirt the 2-part epoxy into the corner of a zip-loc bag, and seal it with as little air in the bag as possible
  2. Mix the epoxy by kneading the bag. DO NOT take your time with this, as it sets up quickly and you want to have time to apply
  3. Once fully mixed, squeeze the epoxy into one of the bottom corners of the bag, and then pinch that corner
  4. Use scissors to cut off a small piece of the corner that you just pinched. The more you cut off, the larger the bead of epoxy that will come out.
  5. Pipe the epoxy out through the hole like you're icing a cake. Pat yourself on the back because you're a badass and you kept your work clean.
14.jpg
 
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For the 5.25" speakers...I wasn't as good about getting pics.

Removal
-With the door card out, carefully bend the pieces of the rivets up, so the speaker and the grill can be removed from the door card.
-Once out, I carefully used my dremel tool to cut the remaining pieces of the rivets from the speaker. Once the speaker and the grill can be separated, the rivets should just fall out.

Set up
-I opted to use allen screws and nyloc nuts to secure the new speaker/grills to the door card. You'll need some pretty large washers on the back side to disperse the weight out and not destroy your door card. I kind of made my own, with some large flat washers that I cut in half, and then drilled a hole to fit my screws. I did not get pictures of this.
-Be Advised: The bolt pattern for the original speakers is not square. On the speakers I used, I was only able to fit screws in 2 opposing holes. The other two were just outside the mounting holes for the speakers. The original grill did a good job of sandwiching the speaker to the door card, so I just went with that. I did not get pictures of this.

Install
-I used the technique in the previous post to repair the original grill. Kids had been rough on it, and the screen was no longer attached to the grill surround. A rubber mallet flattened the screen back out, and some marine epoxy got it stuck back to the grill surround.
15.jpg 16.jpg

Finished
Once it's all back together, I'm happy with the result. I'm going to take a fine-tipped Sharpie and touch up the little bit of epoxy that is visible. Not a huge deal.

It still has all of the character of a 30-40 year old car, but sounds so much better.
19.jpg
18.jpg17.jpg
 
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